Saturday, August 21, 2010

What To Do??? Update at the bottom...

I purchased this poor peach dresser for a ridiculously low price. The legs need a little rebuilding (you can see the brown spot on the right foot, which is a piece knocked off), but the issue isn't really noticeable now that it's stripped. In stripping the paint off of the body today, I found that the original paint was mint green. I don't know what peoples obsession with mint green was, but it seems that everything I have touched - be it walls, furniture, what have you - has been mint green at one point in time! But I digress...

I spent today stripping and sanding. When I wiped down the dresser, there was still some residual peach dust that left an amazing beachy weathered patina, that unfortunately didn't really come through in the photograph...

When I purchased the piece, I intended on painting it a creamy white and glazing it... maybe a raw umber, maybe a greyish color. But now I'm digging this patina! I know it will go away once I completely clean it, but the question I'm left with is do I try to reproduce the patina or go forward with painting it?

I haven't touched the drawers yet, and I noticed a pretty thick area that I have a feeling is someones attempt at fixing the veneer underneath with joint compound. If that's the case, then I definitely have to paint it, but if I'm wrong then I'm stuck with this dilemma!

UPDATE: Well, I got all of the drawers stripped, and it's worse than I thought. Turns out what I thought was joint compound was actually caulk... Who would use caulk to repair wood?? I'm trying to dig it out, but the damage itself is pretty severe, and I'm not sure if the repair is worth getting the pieces apart. Two other drawers are damaged as well... good junks of veneer ripped out and filled with caulk. I'm thinking the best plan is to either paint and glaze the entire thing, or maybe just the drawers and do the weathered patina on the body. Maybe soft black drawers with big vintage silver or tarnished gold knobs. Maybe...